So I finally went back to my Nord character to do the civil war quest so I could at least say I'd done it, and so at least one of my characters could buy Hjerim. What happens? The stupid quest won't start. I've tried everything everybody suggests to make it start, including: fast traveling back and forth a bunch of times, reloading an earlier save, breaking into the house, pickpocketing the key... Nothing. Ulfric tells me I can buy the house, his funny-hatted steward says I can't, and the lady who's supposed to be killed is still walking around.

Oh well. I give up.

/vent

It's been stated before, all you have to do is pickpocket the key from Tova Shattershield. If you've done the DB quest and killed Friga, then all you have to do is enter Shattershields house and loot the key from the dead body of Tova, who just committed suicide. Then enter Hjerim with the key and the Blood on Ice should start as soon as you start investigating objects around the house.

Why couldn't you make a more specific thread title? People not wanting to read this thread's stuff can't avoid it when the title is so vague.

I haven't done the DB quest. I did pickpocket the key, but when I entered the house the quest did not start. So I picked up the journal and read it, and the quest still did not start. Like I said, oh well.

It's tagged "Blood on the Ice". How much more specific do you need? Sheesh.

Youll get over it.

Have you picked up the note/pamphlet Beware of the Butcher? If it doesn't start then, it might be because Viola died during the Civil War. Apparently the quest never triggers if Viola ends up dead.

Yeah, it didn't start then either. But I ran into Viola when I was looking to see if Susanna was still alive, and yep, they both are.

Sounds like a conspiracy.
I take it youre not on pc, otherwise couldnt you force it to start with console commands?

Well, I suggest you load up a save, before you have broken/entered in to Hjerim, and go an do other things for a while (complete few other quests) and then comeback & save and repeat the things you need to do to trigger the quest and see how it goes.

I often found that quest that didn't trigger, eventually did after completing few other quests in the journal.

Console commands don't work with all the quests. Classic examples are Civil War Quests & Blood on Ice. I think this just proves that there are scripting isssues with these quests in the game, otherwise the console commands should work.

Ah, i see. Didnt know that.